CORONAVIRUS: LASG inaugurates Incident Command System

…To Start "Supervised Quarantine"

...Gov Sanwo-Olu Becomes Chief Incident Commander

 AgegePulse Magazine

In a bid to prevent an outbreak of the fast spreading Novel Coronavirus, the Lagos State Government on Monday launched an Incident Command System.

The health emergency structure is being set up to help with containment in the unlikely event of outbreaks of the virus in the State.

Commissioner of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi explained that the Novel Coronavirus is a new pathogen to the human race and as such, research is still ongoing on how to arrest it.

According to him, no suspected or confirmed cases of Novel Coronavirus has been found in Lagos, warning residents against rumour mongering on public health and safety.

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, while launching the Incident Command System said the measure is not to stigmatise citizens of any country but a precautionary one taken in the interest of the people.

The Command System will have the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the Incident Commander while the Commissioner for Health will serve as the Deputy Incident Commander.

The Governor noted that relevant health professionals, in conjunction with the Federal ministry of health, would be deployed to the Lagos International Airport for a higher level of monitoring.

The Governor assured that the Government and Non Governmental Organisations will continue to escalate communication and create public awareness.

He said: “What we have started to do is to have what we call a heightened state concern on the Coronavirus. We are not declaring an emergency in any form but creating a heightened state concern.

"Also, the Honourable Commissioner through his Ministry will identify relevant health professionals that would, in conjunction with the Federal ministry of health, be deployed to our International Airports in Lagos where we would see higher level of monitoring as well as organised level of incidence reporting layout.”

Governor Sanwo-Olu said that although the team expects people to be self quarantined, he however stressed that the State will carry out a supervised quarantine where details about immigrants will be taken at the point of entry while the team will do daily follow-ups through phone calls to identified individuals for a period of two weeks.

According to the Governor, the command will be in operation for the period of time the risk lasts. He assured that adequate preparation has been carried out to tackle the virus.

The Governor said: “This command will go on until when we believe and we have been given assurance that we have a stable and controlled environment but in the meantime, this exercises are going to be put in place and we are going to start things immediately.

“I also want to mention that we have started providing both human and material logistics required for this exercise.

“All of our major General Hospitals are also being prepared in event of an outpour into any of them. The hospitals in mainland have tents coming up and extensive resources are being put in that particular health facility for them to be on standby in case of any suspected or identified case.”

Abayomi further added that the WHO has declared the novel coronavirus a global health concern, saying this will make the State Government step up scrutinising travellers coming in from mostly affected region.

“We need to really ramp up the human capacity at the airport to be able to scrutinise all travellers coming in from particularly the routes that are coming in from the South East Asian regions.

The Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; the Consul General of People's Republic of China, Chu Moaming and the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Folashade Jaji were among the dignitaries present at the event.

"Expect a new Dawn in our Primary Schools Education System" - LASUBEB Chair assures Lagosians

 AgegePulse Magazine

The Chairman of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, Hon.Wahab Alawiye-King has assured parents and Lagosians as a whole of a new dawn in the State Primary Education system, saying that teachers across state government-owned schools are now better informed and prepared for the demands and expectations of the 21st primary education system.

Alawiye-King gave this assurance on Monday when he visited some schools around Maryland   for the inspection of the level of compliance to the resumption date by teachers and pupils of primary schools across the State.

He thanked parents for their cooperation with the state government during the period of postponement of the earlier given resumption date, saying that the delay was in the best interest of the teachers and school pupils.

He was optimistic that with the intellectual and technological exposure given to the teachers at the EKOEXCEL training programme, pupils of the State Government-owned primary schools can now compete with any of their contemporaries.

EkoExcel which stands for Excellence in Child Education and Learning is an Education transformation programme of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration aimed at repositioning Basic Education in Lagos State by enhancing teachers' effectiveness  through technology.

The Lagos SUBEB Chairman advised parents to always prepare their children early for schools, noting that  absenteeism and lateness to school would no longer be condoned as the technological device given to all the teachers by the state government would be monitoring the activities of all the pupils including their punctuality

"Also, teachers should note that absenteeism and lateness are now things of the past in our schools because the electronic devices in their hands  now record their resumption time, supervise the time they spend in classes and their presence in schools.

" EkoExcel is a paradigm shift from the norms. It is a multifaceted, multi dimensional approach to teaching and learning in our classrooms. The introduction of technology into teaching is a total departure from the traditional way of teaching in the classroom" Alawiye-King added.

The HeadTeacher  one of the schools visited, St Francis Nursery and Primary School, Maryland, Mrs. Balogun Lydia said that the teachers now have the mandate of ensuring that every Pupil is proficient in reading, writing and speaking good English.

While commending the impressive turn out of the school pupils at the early hours of the first day of resumption, the HeadTeacher disclosed that the teachers had resumed earlier and had put some preparations in place to ensure a seamless resumption for the school and pupils.

Also one of the teachers of the school who participated in the EkoExcel training, Mr. Zakariyah Isiaq Temitope averred that the exposure given to the teachers during the training exercise was aimed at building intellectually and moral upright school pupils.

" Government has now introduced Character Boards into all our classes where the names of well behaved pupils would be written and celebrated just as the names of disobedient pupils would also be written, " the teacher stated.

He explained that the intention of government was to make the pupils aspire to have their names written for good conduct and subsequently get celebrated, stressing, that the initiative would promote a healthy rivalry for good conduct.

He added that the idea as ordinary as it appears, would be a good way or strategy of addressing the rate moral decadence within the society and will serve as an avenue of correcting the wrongs and ills prevalent in the society today.

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#ForAGreaterLagos

DSTV: We’ll not operate pay as you view system – Multichoice

AgegePulse Magazine

Multichoice, the digital satellite television operator announced on Friday that the company would not operate the “pay as you view’’ tariff system in Nigeria, in spite of demands for such.

The Chief Customer Officer of Multichoice, Martin Mabutho, made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

Mr Mabutho’s stance comes against the backdrop of persistent clamour by the company’s teeming subscribers for the introduction of a pay as you view tariff plan in Africa’s most populous nation.

“We are not going to introduce pay as you view system. Our contract with our suppliers is on month to month basis,’’ he stated.

South Africa’s Multichoice has dominated the satellite broadcast space in Nigeria since the past 25 and has remained adamant not to introduce the pay as you view system.

“The issue of not introducing pay as you view remains. Nothing will change it.

“We are not going to do it. Our contract with our suppliers are month to month basis. The channels do not belong to Multichoice.

“What we do is to slash our prices in half to make our customers enjoy our services.’’

Mr Mabutho said Multichoice would continue to give acquisition promos or loyalty promos to customers every quarter as incentives.

Customers pay on month to month basis to enjoy the services of the company whether channels are watched or not.

Premium Times

Operator to assemble BRT Buses in Lagos 2019

The operator of Bus Rapid Transit system in Lagos, Primero Transport Services Limited, has said its bus assembly plant being built in the state will begin operation in the second quarter of next year.

The Managing Director of the firm, Mr Fola Tinubu, disclosed this in Lagos on Tuesday.

He also spoke on plans by the firm to phase out manual ticketing and replace it with a card system in the first quarter of 2019.

Tinubu said that Primero had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with one of the biggest bus manufacturers in the world, Yutong, to establish the bus assembly plant in Lagos.

Already, he said that the plant had been set up in Epe and expressed the hope that it would go into mass production of high capacity buses by the second quarter of 2019 when a new BRT corridor being constructed by the Lagos State Government between Oshodi and Abule-Egba would have been completed and allowed to operate.

According to him, the transport firm which started full operation in November 2015, currently has 434 buses conveying 150,000 people daily across major terminals between Ikorodu and Tafawa Balewa Square.

Tinubu said the company planned to increase to 200,000 passengers daily on the Ikorodu/TBS corridor, adding that should Primero win the bid to operate the Abule-Egba/Oshodi corridor, it would deploy additional 350 buses in the route.

He said the organisation hoped to increase its buses to 2,000 with capacity to convey one million passengers daily.

On the plan to completely phase out manual ticketing in the first quarter of 2019, he said all passengers would be compelled to embrace the card system to remove the hassle of queuing to buy tickets.

He called for a conference of all the stakeholders to discuss how to make the public transportation work in Lagos and ensure its viability for investors.

“The discussion must hold if you don’t want the BRT system to collapse like the LSTC and other public transportation arrangements,” he said.

The MD said Primero, 100 per cent privately-owned, had been paying certain percentage of its revenue to the state government giving it the exclusive right to use the dedicated BRT lanes constructed by the government.

Tinubu, however, noted that there had not been any increase in bus fares in the last eight years, despite continuous rise in its operational costs.

“Our biggest challenge is the naira devaluation. We borrow a lot of money in dollars; we import parts in dollars and when the naira nose-dived, our debts doubled and the cost of parts we use has doubled,” he said.

Source: Punch

Ambode Inaugurates 77 Blocks of Classrooms in Alimosho, Mushin, Epe, others

…Handovers nine newly renovated PHCs, says vibrant health system not negotiable

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Tuesday said that his administration will stop at nothing to provide the very best of education for every child at all levels, in the State in line with its all inclusive policy.

Governor Ambode who spoke simultaneously at the launching of several blocks of classrooms and school infrastructures across the State, said the Government’s resolve to ensure qualitative education for children prompted the investment of resources towards the provision and upgrading of infrastructure, particularly at the primary school level.

“More importantly, the basic education level is a crucial stage because it is the foundation upon which all other levels are built. It is our desire therefore to ensure that this level of education is strengthened to enhance the future prospects of our children and their ability to cope with the challenges of higher levels of education,” the Governor said.

Represented at launching of newly constructed block of 13 classrooms with other educational facilities at Community Primary School, Oke Ishagun in Alimosho by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Mrs Oluranti Adebule, the Governor said his administration will not deviate from its vision to develop a robust public education system that can compare with the best in the world, just as he restated his administration’s commitment to ensuring that the ongoing rehabilitation and construction of classrooms is extended to all public schools in the State irrespective of the area and location.

The Governor thanked teachers in Lagos for their role in moulding the lives of children, assuring that their dedication to their growth and development will continue to be rewarded by his administration with improved welfare and working conditions.

“To our pupils, the future belongs to you if you listen to your teachers and your parents. You can achieve anything you put your mind to but you must work hard and pay attention. Read your books and focus on achieving your dreams and develop yourself daily,” he said.

Besides, Governor Ambode also charged people of the community as well as community leaders to guard the facilities jealously, adding that they must be properly maintained so that they can serve for a long time.

The Governor, through his representatives also commissioned the newly rehabilitated Block of 32 Classrooms with Office and Toilets, School Hall, Fence, Gate House and Food Shop at Christ Church Cathedral Primary School, Broad Street; Block of 13 Classrooms with Toilets, Offices and Fire Alarm at Community Primary School, Abule Eko, Ijede, Lagos; Block of 13 Classrooms with Toilets, Offices and Fire Alarm at Community Primary School, Ado Ikosi, Epe, Lagos and Six Classrooms with Toilets, Offices and Fire Alarm at Odu Abore Primary School, Mushin, Lagos.

Meanwhile, Governor Ambode also commissioned nine newly renovated Primary Health Care Centers (PHCs), stating that one of the core policy objectives of his administration in the health sector is to build a vibrant healthcare system through the revitalization of all PHCs in the State.

At the commissioning of the newly renovated Pakpa-Uku Primary Health Care Centre, Agege, he said that primary healthcare is the bedrock of healthcare service delivery system worldwide as they are the closest to the people.

Represented at the event by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, the Governor said that the renovation and equipping of the Pakpa-Uku PHC is in line with State government’s desire to bring quality health care services close to where people live and work.

Ambode while noting that the facility should be the first point of contact for all households within the community added that with the renovation of the PHC, the people of the community are assured of quality health care service delivery stressing that the PHC is equipped with medical facilities and personnel to attend to their health needs.

“Health conditions that are not within the capacity of this primary health care facility will be referred to the appropriate General Hospital for further examination and treatment”, the Governor stated.

Governor Ambode, through his representatives, also commissioned eight other newly renovated PHCs, including Sura Primary Healthcare Centre at Lagos Island East; Maidan Primary Healthcare Centre at Ikosi-Isheri; Orisunbare Primary Healthcare Centre at Alimosho; Agarawu Primary Healthcare Centre at Lagos Island; Oba Salami Primary Healthcare Centre at Yaba; Oshodi Primary Healthcare Centre; Onigbongbo Primary Healthcare Centre at Onigbongbo and the Ojodu Primary Healthcare Centre at Ojodu.

Meanwhile, the Governor while commissioning a modern Fibre Glass Boat donated to riverine Communities in Epe, assured existing and potential investors in water transportation of the commitment of his administration to develop the sector to international standards through construction of modern jetties and terminals as well as channelization of waterways.

Governor Ambode, who was represented by the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Hon. Lola Akande, said his administration was also making efforts to strengthen the regulatory framework for the effective monitoring of operators with an overriding objective of guaranteeing safety of lives on Lagos water ways.

He said that the boat was manufactured from durable Fibre Glass which makes it lighter and faster on the waterways compared to the conventional wooden boats, adding that it is also equipped with safety items, including standard safety vests to ensure that passengers are secured in the events of any mishap.

On the strategic benefits of the boat, the Governor expressed confidence that the Fibre Boats would give a boost to social and economic activities of the fishermen and fish processors in outlying island near Epe, by providing a fast means of moving their stock to the mainland while school children in the hinterland will be availed the opportunity of safe transportation to and from schools on the mainland.